Almost Half a Million Swiss Want a Financial System Like Bitcoin’s

A rather extreme campaign was set in Switzerland to change the entirety of the country’s financial system to mimic that of bitcoin’s. Of course, the campaign was lost but it did reveal that a significant amount of Swiss actually consider the idea—500,000, to be exact, making up 25% of those polled.

The Sovereign Money Initiative was proposed by a group called MoMo. Momo Board Member Emma Dawnay explains that regardless of the result of the vote, cryptocurrency and blockchain tech is the direction the Swiss government is heading anyway:

“Blockchain technology could be how the Swiss government could try to bring debt free new money into the economy. Despite the vote losing, the Swiss central bank is looking at similar things.”

While it may not be looking into cryptocurrencies, the Swiss Central Bank is looking into incorporating blockchain tech into the financial industry.

Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan had criticized the Sovereign Money Initiative for being a “dangerous experiment.” However, Jordan is not against blockchain tech. In fact, he had commented earlier this year that Central Bank money may be issued through a distributed ledger.

MoMo will be continuing their efforts to push for financial reform.

MoMo spokesperson Raffael Wuethrich said:

“The discussion is only just getting started. Our goal is that money should be in the service of the people and not the other way around and we will continue to work on it.”